The Commission for Gender Equality was overall happy with the budget speech. It signified no major structural departures from the past in the sense that South Africa remains committed to a market economy within a largely social democratic state. Within that framework, there are some new departures that look promising.
Chief amongst these are the commitment to creating a policy environment for increased employment, effective measures for monitoring and improving efficiency in service delivery, and forcefully tackling corruption. The Commission for Gender Equality welcomes these measures. The past 15 years have provided jobless growth with terrible consequences for poor and unskilled people, of whom the majority are women. The new policy direction gives hope to those people.
The proposed measures for improving government efficiency are also very good news. Minister Gordhan has done a fantastic job with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and we look forward to him trying his skills on the South African civil service generally. He can do it, if anyone can.
When it comes to corruption, we strongly encourage the proposed measures. The shortfall in tax revenue, estimated to be about R69 billion, will prove to be much less of a problem if the government can only eliminate wastage and corruption. In fact, it is possible that in terms of outcomes, we may be equally well off, simply by ensuring that every tax rand is properly used for the intended purpose.
The commitment to building a green economy is also very welcome and we note with satisfaction that this commitment has been backed by a solid budgetary allocation. In this regard an emissions tax for cars is excellent, but we would have liked to see more stringent emissions taxes for industry generally, in particular for energy production.
We are not also happy with the suggestion that proposed new investment for Eskom should be funded through user tariffs, and have expressed ourselves strongly in this regard on previous occasions.
On the negative side, the Commission for Gender Equality was not satisfied with the fact that the minister did not address the issue of gender at all in his speech. The economic policy arena is still very male dominated, and we would have appreciated more attention being paid to gender equality.
In fact, we would have liked to see the minister address the question of gender budgeting, and assure us that his plans for monitoring and evaluation includes being able to tell us how much of the tax revenue goes to women and how much to men. This is called gender budgeting and should be standard practice in every budget speech.
We are also concerned with the allocation between planning and monitoring and evaluation. We note that a sum of R82 million has been allocated between the ministers of National Planning and Monitoring and Evaluation, but there is no guidance as to how the sum is split between the two ministries. We express the hope that the division is more or less even, because to have plans without proper measurements for their implementation would defeat the purpose. Thus we request the Minister of Finance to provide clarity on this matter.
The increase in the budget for land reform, as well as several other measures designed to increase service delivery in rural areas, are well done. In particular the allocation to improve water and sanitation delivery is welcome, and will enable us better to meet the millennium development goals targets. These measures give weight to the government’s commitment to rural development.
However, we would have liked to see a more solid allocation to agriculture. Economic success stories in countries like Malawi typically are based on an allocation of 10 percent of the budget to agricultural development, while ours lags far behind. As a result we are likely to see a continued long term escalation in food prices, with negative consequences for women as consumers and the providers of food for the family.
Minister Gordhan was very concerned with high rates of youth unemployment, but did not mention the fact that unemployment amongst women is higher than amongst men, or that when they do get paid, women earn on average 55 percent of men’s salaries. Although we have almost reached gender equity in education, this is not translating into equality in the labour market, and this constitutes a major threat to social cohesion.
The measures to reduce youth unemployment are welcome, but over half of the youth are women. We were given no guarantees that measures would be put in place to ensure that young women receive their fair share of these programmes. Moreover, barriers to entry and promotion in the labour market for women are severe, and deserve serious attention from the minister of finance.
The Commission for Gender Equality notes with the deepest concern the very low budget allocated to the Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities. We are at a loss to understand how the ministry is to fulfil its functions, in particular with respect to driving and accelerating equality programs in ministries several times its size.
The budget allocation leaves it the smallest of all government ministries, and is a telling comment on the level of this government’s commitment to equality. Internationally the experience of women’s ministries has been that they tend to be underfunded and overloaded with functions, and in this way are set up to be ineffective. This budget gives the women of South Africa fair warning that they will continue to be marginalised for the foreseeable future and is to be deplored in the strongest possible terms.
Issued by: Commission for Gender Equality
17 February 2010
